The word "Amasya" at the head of the title sets this recording apart from the other üç ayak dances of the same summer. On its 1943 tour the Ankara State Conservatory team also recorded dance tunes called "Üç Ayak" in Tokat, Zile and Merzifon; while working in the province of Amasya it wrote the wordless piece it took from Cuma Nacak and Veli Döngel on the card as "Amasya Üç Ayak ve Yeldirmesi". The day of the recording could not be read on the card, and the cataloguer placed it in July 1943 and, presumably, in the province of Amasya. The piece did not enter the TRT repertoire, and its notation has not been published.

Catalogue Data

  • Repertoire no.: none; not registered under the Amasya region in the TRT repertoire
  • Region: province of Amasya; place and day of recording given in square brackets in the catalogue, as presumptions
  • Source persons (performers): Cuma Nacak, Veli Döngel
  • Collected by: Ankara State Conservatory (Halil Bedii Yönetken, Muzaffer Sarısözen, Rıza Yetişen)
  • Date of collection: July 1943, day uncertain
  • Location in the archive: Folklore Archive, disc 1111/B-3; no. 3612 in Kaya's catalogue
  • Genre: dance tune (üç ayak and yeldirme), without words
  • Mode, rhythm: unknown, as no notation has been published
  • Music: anonymous
  • Source link: for the details, Kaya's 2014 catalogue thesis; there is no TRT link

Lyrics

The piece is a wordless dance tune played on instruments; the catalogue gives only its title and records no first line. No published source of its notation could be found. The sound recording is held among the 1943 discs, as no. 1111/B-3, in the Folklore Archive that now belongs to the State Conservatory of Hacettepe University; copies of the collection cards were transferred to TRT in the 1970s.

Story

There is no published record of where in Amasya, or at what wedding or gathering, the dance was performed. Nor does the catalogue say anything about how, or by how many people, it was danced. The name itself gives a little information: the word "Amasya" may have been added to mark a difference from the üç ayak dances recorded in Tokat and Zile on the same tour. Other explanations of the name are also possible.

Musical Features

No information has been published on the scale, rhythm or length of the tune. The "yeldirme" of the title often appears as the name of a section of dance tunes on the cards the team kept on the same tour: in Zile "Üç Ayak (Ağırlama ve Yeldirme)", in Merzifon "Kürt Halayı (Ağırlama – Yanlama – Yeldirme)", and so on. In these sequences the yeldirme always comes after the ağırlama, as the last section. No ağırlama is named in this recording; the piece consists of the üç ayak and its yeldirme.

Performers and Recordings

The only known recording is the 1943 disc. At the same session Cuma Nacak and Veli Döngel also played "Köçek Havası", "Bildiş ve Yeldirme" and "Tokat Oyun Havası"; Veli Döngel further recorded "Kürt Halayı" and "Turhal Halayı" with Mustafa Kılıç. Of these, according to Kaya's comparison table, "Bildiş ve Yeldirme" entered the TRT repertoire as no. 91, "Bildiş Oyun Havası", with Cuma Nacak given as the source person. For Amasya's dance tunes and folk songs, see The Melody of Yeşilırmak.

Bibliography

Online sources